Saturday, January 26, 2008

Hõbelusikas - Silverspoon: Estonian Gastronomy Awards 2007

Me (on the left:) and the winner of the Chef of the Year Award, Tõnis Siigur from Restaurant Stenhus, Tallinn at the Estonian Gastronomy Awards ceremony yesterday. Photo by K.

Just like last year, I had a chance to attend the Silver Spoon 2007 Gala Dinner last night. The Estonian Gastronomy Awards were handed over at the ceremony attended by many of the food-loving bold and beautiful in Estonia, including me and my dear K :) There were small ballet dancers, singing by Chalice, lots of good food, and plenty of food-related chatting, of course.

The festive dinner menu was created by the winner of the Chef of the Year award of 2006, Dimitri Demjanov, the grand old man of Estonian haute cuisine, and it was full of surprising local ingredients like Baltic herring, my beloved kama, sea-buckthorn, black pudding/blood sausage, to name just a few. I'll reprint the menu with my musings below, but first, the award winners.

There are ten categories at the Estonian Gastronomy Awards, and I list them in no particular order:

Now. First let me tell you that I'm extremely pleased that Tõnis Siigur, the young and talented chef of Restaurant Stenhus in Tallinn won the Chef of the Year award. You see, I love his restaurant, and more importantly, I also had a chance to work in his restaurant for 10 full days in December (what? you mean I've still not told you about the Cookery Diploma I successfully did last autumn and which included an 80-hour internship in a restaurant? Well, I did, and I did my internship at the best gourmet restaurant in Tallinn, and Tõnis Siigur taught me a lot. The fact that I ended up sitting next to him at the ceremony was pure coincidence, however:)

Stenhus won the best gourmet restaurant award for the fourth time, and if that's not a sign of quality, I don't know what is :) But K. and I also had a wonderful meal at Restaurant Ö just recently, and I would have been happy for either one to win. I'm a bit unsure about the café category, however, as none of my current favourite cafés (Chocolats de Pierre, Anneli Viik Chocolate Café, Café´Park) made it to the shortlist. Next year, hopefully. K. and I are really not pub persons, so neither one of us has personal preferences for the best pub, but apparently the winner of the category - the Tavern Suur Töll on the island of Saaremaa - serves excellent home-made pub snacks (while also being the most family friendly establishment!!), so we'll make sure to check the place out this summer.

And now to the menu:

Dimitri Demjanov is known for his respect for local, traditional ingredients and dishes, and this was clearly evident in the menu. Whereas I didn't think that all dishes worked so well (sea-buckthorn coulis was way too sweet to do any justice to the excellent berry), there were some real inventive and delightful gems. The creamy black pudding soup was both delicious and intriguing; the pork lard with herbs and goat cheese butter accompanying the breads were definitely different; the decision to serve caraway infusion as an alternative to coffee with petit fours was brave, but justified, and chosen by many. K. and I were unsure about the food and alcohol pairings - there was beer, mead, vodka, sherry, calvados, champagne and white wine, and although I only took a sip of each, I could feel it this morning :)

It was a great and enjoyable night, and we'll be looking forward to the 2008 awards next January. Tõnis Siigur will be in charge of the menu, you see, and knowing what he's capable of, the meal is worth waiting for :)

I was going to comment on the doughnuts but the drooling prevented it, so here it is. It must have been lots of fun, and I´m glad your favourite chef won, it´s like you got part of the prize, in a way.

Dagmar – it was a lovely night out, and I’m already looking forward to the next year’s show..

Wendy – there’s not much to tell. 220 hours of course work, including 80 hours in the restaurant, an exam, a diploma. But one has to take their hobbies seriously, you know:)

K&S – indeed!

Gloria – thank you :)

Kristopher – well, I’m not so sceptical. Good food is good food, and yes, a kebab on a street corner at 3am can taste like the best meal ever. But there’s a difference between the food I expect from a casual small restaurant (good home-style cooking, nice atmosphere) and from a gourmet restaurant (excellent technical skills, eye-catching plating, attention to detail etc). They all have a place. And a crispy black pudding in a pub during Christmas season is very different from the smooth black pudding soup we were served at the gala evening. A gourmet restaurant definitely doesn’t mean truffle oil and foie gras worked into every dish (though they’re often served there). Wouldn’t you say there’s difference between your expectations in Pok Pok and, say, The French Laundry?

Lydia – don’t know about that – there are good Estonian food blogs out here. I might win the best English-language Estonian food blog title, however :)

Abra – no, we didn’t get any recipes. But Tõnis Siigur, the award-winning chef in our table, thought that it was probably a veloute soup mixed with pork blood. We initially thought it was pureed black pudding, but as Estonian black pudding is made with barley groats, these would become glue-like when liquidised..

Anon. – why such a sarcastic comment? Yes, the Gini index is high in Estonia and lots of people cannot afford to eat out in restaurants. But plenty of local people do dine out, and I haven’t felt as unwelcome in these restaurants (despite being a poor academic). They’re often overpriced, I agree, but I didn’t feel we paid a penny too much in either Stenhus or Ö, for example…